Imagine that you had the opportunity to go to the best restaurant in existence. You’ve been drooling over this menu for years, dreaming of the day you could eat any item that catches your fancy. The wait staff is highly trained, exquisitely knowledgeable and unobtrusive. The chef is so good that the rating scales have had to add categories just to accommodate the quality of the food. This remarkable opportunity is certain to be one of the most memorable dinners of your life.

When you arrive, there is a red carpet for you to walk on, an escort from your car, and at your table awaits a bouquet of fresh flowers and an aperitif. The lighting complements your skin-tone, and the music is soothing and low. The chairs are comfy and inviting, and there is plenty of room to sit at the table. The waiter holds your chair out for you and you sit down with a sigh of delight. The waiter hands you a drink menu, but you defer your choice to the sommalier.

The waiter nods in response and leaves to pass on your request to the sommalier. You promptly get up and follow the waiter to make sure the message is passed on correctly. Then you watch the sommalier select the perfect drink for you, but you just can’t help but make suggestions. In a few minutes, not only are you making suggestions, but you’re pulling bottles out of cupboards and are mixing up drinks yourself. The sommalier quietly stands aside, watching you squirt this and that into your glass. The only problem is…you don’t know the first thing about mixing drinks and you can’t seem to get the proportions right. Finally you give up and go sit at your table…drinkless.

The waiter returns to your table with a menu, which is pointless as you already know what you want to order. You wave aside the menu and decline to hear the specials because, as you’ve already mentioned several times so far in the evening, you already know what you want to order. What you don’t know is that the chef, in preparation for your visit, has created a dish just for you and has featured it in the specials menu. Had you listened to it, you would have recognized it and flushed with pleasure and gratitude. Instead, you order what you think is your dream dish off the regular menu.

The waiter respectfully takes your order and turns to leave to report to the kitchen. As he does, you get up to follow him. He tries to dissuade you, assuring you that your order will be created exactly as you have requested, but you want to make sure it’s done right…after all, you don’t know when you’ll be back here again and you want to get the most out of the evening. The waiter gives up and you trail behind him to the kitchen.

The chef is gracious and welcomes you to the restaurant. He/She tells you what an honor it is to be able to prepare food for you and confesses that he/she has created a special dish just for you. However, you don’t hear this last bit because you’re focused on making sure that the chef knows what you ordered and will make your dish exactly like you want it. As he/she begins, you start asking questions…which soon turn into suggestions…then criticism…and in a short period of time you’re making the dish yourself. The chef quietly stands aside, watching you become more and more tense as you attempt to make your dish. Alas…it doesn’t turn out either, and after a while you give up and return to your seat at your table.

All the joy of the evening is gone. You’re flushed with frustration and disappointment and you complain to your dinner partner that this restaurant just isn’t what you thought it would be. You don’t understand why it’s gotten such high ratings when you haven’t even gotten a drink or your meal order. You look around and your dinner partner has his/her order and it looks delicious. Other tables have their orders too and they look amazing. Yet, there is nothing in front of you.

You decide that the restaurant doesn’t like you…that you’re being punished for wearing leather boots instead of vegan boots…that the wait staff is prejudice against people with fingernails…that the chef doesn’t know how to manage time…that the sommalier is a fake…that your dining partner has a secret inside connection with the restaurant. You create all sorts of stories about why you have no drink and no meal…never once realizing that it’s because you got in the way of the experts who were trying to fill your request.

Once we commit to a decision, this is often what happens. We get so obsessed with the details and the hows of the manifestation process that we get in the way of our request…for that’s what a decision and commitment are. They are requests of the Universe. And, just like the wait staff at the restaurant, the Universe will do everything it can to make your request a reality…so long as we stay out of the way.

Additionally, if we get bogged down in the details, we miss opportunities for better gifts than we have requested. We may have decided to work for a particular institution, but the best scenario may not look like what we envision. If we cling to our specific vision, we could miss out on a more fitting opportunity. We need to request and then let go and get out of the way so the experts can make it happen.

But, how do we balance the focus and commitment with letting go? Aren’t those two concepts diametrically opposed to one another? Yes…so long as you are intent on controlling the situation…such as making sure the drinks are mixed properly and the chef makes the food correctly. If you bring your control chips off the situation and back into your Divine Line you now have the opportunity to control your reactions and emotions in the situation. And this is the key to the entire situation.

Had you sat at the table after you ordered, focusing on the joy and delight you were going to experience when your order was filled, the evening would have gone quite differently. You could have had a lovely conversation with your dinner partner, and you imaginations would have provided you with as much pleasure as the actual fulfillment of your request. In essence, you could have had a double experience in one night simply by experiencing the emotions of the outcome before it occurred.

Similarly, now that you’ve made a decision and committed to it, you’ve placed the order with the Universe. Now, release control of how it’s going to be prepared for you and simply relish the emotions you will feel once your order is fulfilled. Feel the rush of pleasure…the elation of joy…the delightful surprise…the unexpected blessing…the irrepressible laughter…the wonder that this was all done just for you. Feel this…fully, completely, daily…anticipating with certainty and joyful watchfulness for its arrival. You have no idea what it will look like, and it may come in a different order or configuration than you had imagined, but you know there will be little hints to let you know that this is what you ordered. Now it’s a game in which the Universe sets out to bring you your greatest happiness and you get to receive it with gratitude and appreciation in wonderment and surprise. There are no doubts or worries or anxieties…only certainty and trust and joy…because you let go of control, got out of the way, and let the experts do their jobs…just for you…because you asked.